Ruth Brenk

Ruth Brenk is a Professor at the Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen (UiB), and an associated member of the Computational Biology Unit. She leads the Brenk Lab, which focuses on advancing structure-based drug design through the integration of computational and experimental approaches.

Research Interests: Her work centers on improving methods for structure-based drug design, particularly targeting enzymes with biological significance. Key areas include RNA-ligand interactions (especially riboswitches as antibiotic targets), protein-ligand interactions in conserved binding sites, and druggability prediction for both protein and RNA targets. Her lab emphasizes the synergy between theoretical modeling and experimental validation.

Recent Publications Trend: Analysis of her latest publications (2021–2025) reveals a strong focus on antibiotic discovery, particularly against Pseudomonas aeruginosa via FabF/FabB inhibition using fragment screening and X-ray crystallography. There is a growing emphasis on RNA as a drug target, including tools like DrugPred_RNA and participation in the TargetRNA EU network. Her work also explores metalloenzyme inhibitors and the quality of screening libraries (e.g., EU-OPENSCREEN).

• Scientific Awards: While no personal awards are listed, her research group has achieved recognition, including a prize for the second-best oral presentation at the 34th Molecular Modeling Workshop 2020 awarded to group member Illimar Rekand.

Advising and Grants: Ruth Brenk actively mentors multiple PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers. She leads significant funded projects, including the EU Horizon-funded TargetRNA MSCA network, a Centre for Digital Life Norway project on responsible innovation in drug discovery for antibiotics and COPD, and work on Ribotacs funded through EU-OPENSCREEN. These projects highlight her leadership in interdisciplinary, collaborative research.

Labs and Teams: The Brenk Lab is part of the 'Structural Biology and Drug Discovery' research unit at UiB. The lab collaborates closely with researchers from the Department of Chemistry, including Nathalie Reuter and Bengt-Erik Haug, and participates in international consortia such as EU-OPENSCREEN and Digital Life Norway.